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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27754291">Hammer Squad</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vale_the_unknown/pseuds/Vale_the_unknown'>Vale_the_unknown</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Titanfall</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cussing, Multi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:08:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,173</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27754291</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vale_the_unknown/pseuds/Vale_the_unknown</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>No summary (yet)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hammer Squad</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Before you begin reading, I’d like to say thank you for clicking on my work! I’m new to writing and I’m young, so I am not very good at writing. I’m also new to Ao3, and I don’t really know how it works yet. I will be working on this when I feel like I’m capable, so don’t expect much.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Laura awoke with a start. The wreckage of the Crow sat around her. She looked about frantically. Torn wires sparked around her. She saw the dark shapes of bodies strewn across the wreckage, the beams of light from the setting sun pouring in through tears in the ship. </p><p>‘The team’, She thought. She scrambled to the body nearest to her. She saw the Phase Simulacrum chassis of James. She shook the chassis, hoping he wasn’t too damaged to operate. The optic on the head of the chassis flickered to life, illuminating the wrecked Crow.</p><p>“bzzz-wh-L- What happened?”</p><p> The electronic voice of James filtered through small speakers located in his neck. He sat up, checking for any damage to his chassis, besides the scratches gained from being thrown around the inside of the Crow. Laura sat back with a smile opun her face, unseen by James due to the helmet she wore. She said to James, “Crow got hit by a missile. Damn AA turrets. You check the pilot; I’ll see if the rest of the squad is alive.”</p><p>—————————————————————</p><p>“Sure.” James replied. He stood, testing his legs’ hydraulics. Contempt that they wouldn’t fall apart at the sudden use of them, he walked among the wreckage, towards what was left of the cockpit. He didn’t have to walk far before noticing it was gone. </p><p>The simulacrum leaned through the doorway to where the cockpit was supposed to be, and saw the cockpit several meters away among the warm waters of the swamps they landed in. Sure that the pilot was dead, he waded through the knee-high water to the remnants of the cockpit. He saw the shoulder of the pilot, and his spirits rose. ‘Maybe he’s not dead.’ He thought hopefully. He grabbed the pilot's shoulder, and shook it. The pilot didn't move. "Hey, pilot, get up. We've got to get out of here before the Raptors eat us."</p><p>The pilot didn't respond. James leaned into the cockpit to get a better view of the pilot. The entire right side of the pilot was gone, blown away by the missile that tore apart the craft. James sighed, or rather, shrugged and made a sound of someone exhaling, and opened a comms channel. "James here. Pilot's dead. Missile took him out. Not much left."</p><p>He didn't have to wait long for a response.<br/>
"Damn. Get back here quick. Something's happened."</p><p>A strange feeling settled in the circuits of James' chassis. That doesn’t sound good. James returned to the main wreck, and saw Laura kneeling in a corner, her helmet on the ground next to her, its lights on. She looked over her shoulder, and silent, waves him over. He walked over to Laura and stood beside her.</p><p>“So, what’s the issue- oh, shit.”</p><p>Their oldest member of the team, a man named Avery, didn’t survive the crash. He was on his back, seemingly moved from his original location. His neck was at an odd angle. Laura and James had seen enough dead bodies to know his neck was broken. James shook his head. “Poor bastard.”</p><p>Laura stayed silent. She stood up, leaned over Avery’s corpse, and took his dog tags. She nodded to Avery in respect, the words ‘Johnson, Avery’ hanging from her hand. She stood still for a few seconds, trying not to show to James how she felt about this. James looked at her back, knowing exactly what was happening.</p><p>“You know it’s okay to cry.”</p><p>“I do know. But I won’t stop if I start.”</p><p>James shrugged, and walked through the wreckage to the final member of the Hammer Squad, Pilot Squad Leader Vale. They looked banged up, but not as bad as Avery. They laid prone over the MRVN tasked with debriefing the team on the way to the emergency.</p><p>The MRVN was still partially operable, its head still attempting to look around itself, but prevented from doing so by the Flatline attached at Vale’s hip. Vale’s jump kit seemed to be missing, as it wasn’t on their waist.</p><p>—————————————————————</p><p>All Vale saw was black. They felt numb, as if a lead blanket rested over them. What just happened? They remembered getting the alert of the Militia raiding another colony. Getting into a Crow with the rest of Hammer Squad. Looking out the window as they all warped into the planet’s atmosphere. </p><p>They remembered the shrill alarm of an incoming missile, and the unmistakable feeling of lead in their stomach. ‘Not again’, they thought. ‘I can’t be dead. Please don’t let me be dead.’ Their head started to ache, and their limbs begin to throb with bruises. ‘I can feel that. Dead people don’t feel. I must be alive.’ They hear the distant voices of some of the members Hammer Squad, muffled in the black. ‘They’re alive too.’ A sense of relief washed over Vale. They felt a rumble in the dark. They body felt as if they were being shook by something. They hear the faint voice of someone calling to them. “.....Vale.....c’mon.....Vale?.....”</p><p>They recognised the electronic voice to be James. ‘I can hear him, now I just gotta wake up..’ A blinding light appeared before them. Vale groaned and turned away. They peeked through their fingers at the light. They saw a silhouette walking towards them, as if on solid ground. ‘Is this some sort of dream? I feel like I’m floating, but how are they walking?’</p><p>The silhouette became to take form. Vale saw the strange shape didn’t appear to look human. Almost like a simulacrum, but had an odd chassis. The head didn’t have the typical rectangular optic of a Stim or Phase Shift chassis, but looked more like the shattered visor of a Grapple Pilot. A short, torn cloak whipped behind them. The carried an object in their arm, but Vale couldn’t discern what it was.</p><p>“You have a great future ahead of you, Vale Wyman. Think about what you’re doing. Why you took this mission. Is what the IMC doing right? You have many big choices ahead of you. I hope you’ll make the right choices.” The silhouette said. </p><p>They reached a hand towards Vale. Vale tried to take it, but felt a force pulling at their back. “What do you mean? The IMC is here to bring order to the Frontier! We took this mission because it’s our duty! What choices am I supposed to make? And who are you?”</p><p>The silhouette chuckled, the sound shaking Vale to the bone. “You will answers these questions yourself, in time. But know this. Keep your friends close. You’ll never know when you might lose them forever. Believe me, I know from experience.”</p><p>Vale was confused. The force pulling them back was getting stronger. Vale tried to walk towards the silhouette, but their feet landed on nothing. The light before them was getting brighter, hurting their eyes, and it was getting harder and harder to see the silhouette. “WHO ARE YOU?” Vale yelled into the light, hoping for an answer. They got one.</p><p>“You’ll find out eventually.”</p>
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